The Reign of Greed eBook

But in that struggle Florentine received a wound from
which he never recovered. Weeks before his first
mass the woman he loved, in desperation, married a
nobody—­a blow the rudest he had ever experienced.
He lost his moral energy, life became dull and insupportable.
If not his virtue and the respect for his office,
that unfortunate love affair saved him from the depths
into which the regular orders and secular clergymen
both fall in the Philippines. He devoted himself
to his parishioners as a duty, and by inclination to
the natural sciences.

When the events of seventy-two occurred, [9] he feared
that the large income his curacy yielded him would
attract attention to him, so, desiring peace above
everything, he sought and secured his release, living
thereafter as a private individual on his patrimonial
estate situated on the Pacific coast. He there
adopted his nephew, Isagani, who was reported by the
malicious to be his own son by his old sweetheart
when she became a widow, and by the more serious and
better informed, the natural child of a cousin, a lady
in Manila.

The captain of the steamer caught sight of the old
priest and insisted that he go to the upper deck,
saying, “If you don’t do so, the friars
will think that you don’t want to associate with
them.”

Padre Florentino had no recourse but to accept, so
he summoned his nephew in order to let him know where
he was going, and to charge him not to come near the
upper deck while he was there. “If the captain
notices you, he’ll invite you also, and we should
then be abusing his kindness.”

“My uncle’s way!” thought Isagani.
“All so that I won’t have any reason for
talking with Dona Victorina.”

CHAPTER III

LEGENDS

Ich weiss nicht was soil es
bedeuten
Dass ich so traurig bin!

When Padre Florentino joined the group above, the
bad humor provoked by the previous discussion had
entirely disappeared. Perhaps their spirits had
been raised by the attractive houses of the town of
Pasig, or the glasses of sherry they had drunk in
preparation for the coming meal, or the prospect of
a good breakfast. Whatever the cause, the fact
was that they were all laughing and joking, even including
the lean Franciscan, although he made little noise
and his smiles looked like death-grins.